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Ql\)c Mexican iDar, 


A 


DISCOURSE 

DELIVERED AT 


THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN FAIR HAVEN, 


ON THE 


ANNUAL FAST OF 1847. 


By REV. BURDETT HART. 

v |l 


NEW HAVEN: 

PECK 8c STAFFORD, PRINTERS. 





PREFATORY NOTE. 


The following discourse was not designed for publication, but for oral delivery to 
the writer’s congregation. Members of that congregation have thought the truth 
which was spoken would do good if it could be read, and for that purpose, at their 
solicitation, it is presented to them in its present form. 

Events which have transpired since it was written, have only served to confirm 
the positions which are here maintained, and to demonstrate the importance of cor¬ 
rect and candid views of the existing war. Truth upon this subject should not be 
regarded with the feelings and prejudices of partisans, but with the sentiments of 
patriots and Christians. And it is a cheering fact, that strong men in both of our 
great political parties are rightly regarding this matter, and are bold in their denun¬ 
ciation of the war. When shall the time arrive that the North will show the same 
devotion for Liberty that the South manifests for Slavery ? That time, if it comes 
not too late, will be the date of a new and good era for the land. 


(-550 
0 ' 1 ° 



DISCOURSE 


Joshua, xix. 47.—And the coast of the children of Dan went out too little for 
them ; therefore the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem, and took it, 
and smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and dwelt therein, and 
called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father. 

A new national era has commenced. It is the era of conquest. 
The settled policy of our government, from its origin to the present 
time, has been abandoned. The armies of the United States are en¬ 
camped on a foreign territory. Our troops are in possession of foreign 
citadels, and the inhabitants of another land, on their own soil, are 
forced to yield obedience to our laws. It is written in the preamble 
to our free Constitution, that one purpose for which it was ordained, 
was “ to provide for the common defence but we do not find that 
its founders ever cherished the idea that this nation would be en¬ 
gaged in aggressive war. It is proved from the annals hi our histo¬ 
ry, that while the citizens of this country have been prompt to main¬ 
tain their own rights, they have been slow to seek occasion to trample 
on the rights of others. It was the policy of Washington to stand 
aloof from the intrigues and struggles of the European States, and to 
direct the attention and energies of this people to the cultivation and 
development of their own resources. The wisdom of the father of 
his country has been evident to his successors, and they have, until 
a very recent date, followed in his footsteps. Neither on that conti¬ 
nent, nor on this, have we interfered with the rights, or engaged in 
the conflicts of foreign nations. Americans have indeed sympathized 
with the struggles of those who, from time to time, roused perhaps 
by our own example, have endeavored to upturn the thrones of ty¬ 
ranny, and maintain the natural rights and sacred principles of hu¬ 
manity ; but the nation has never been engaged in offensive opera¬ 
tions against another power. 

Once our land shook beneath the tread of mustering legions, and 
the energies of an infant people were roused to cast off the yoke of 
foreign oppression and foreign rule. And once again, for the defence 




4 


of our cherished rights, the lakes and the ocean rocked beneath the 
thunder of the pealing ordnance, and witnessed the triumph of our 
gallant navy. Since the Declaration of their Independence, the 
United States have waged fio wars but those with foreign powers. 
Unlike the more powerful nations of the Old World, we have never 
sent forth our armies to obtain territory by violence. The credit of 
the nation has not been impaired; the treasury has not been exhaust¬ 
ed; the sinews of the government have not been paralyzed; her re¬ 
sources have not been squandered ; the people have not been called 
to forsake their homes and the pursuits of peace ; thousands have not 
been offered in distant climes to the bloody Moloch of battle, that our 
banners might wave over conquered provinces, and distant tribes and 
people might acknowledge allegiance to our sovereignty. 

But the times have changed. It has come to pass that a new order 
of things has been adopted. This government, renouncing the wise 
policy of the past, has taken an aggressive position. The era of 
conquest has commenced. 

I do not propose, in my remarks to-day, to depart from the proper 
field of my duty as a minister of the gospel. It is not my province 
to speak as a partisan—to defend or oppose the tactics of any class 
or organization in the political world. But it is my privilege and 
my duty, a duty in the discharge of which I trust I shall never falter, 
a duty which I believe you would wish me to fulfill in all faithful¬ 
ness—to enforce upon my hearers the claims of God’s law and the 
supremacy of His government, in all the relations, not less the politi¬ 
cal than others, of their lives. The pulpit is on all suitable occasions 
to speak boldly of National Wrong, and to assert the accountability 
of the nation to Him, who ruleth among the armies of heaven and 
over the inhabitants of the earth. I do not suppose that there is a 
perfect analogy between our present position as a nation, and that of 
the children of Dan as spoken of in the text: and yet it has seemed to 
me that the resemblance may be traced in some particulars so nicely, 
that the passage may well be the starting-point of our reflections— 
the base of our operations, as it were, on the subject of the Mexican 
War. 

The children of Dan, it seems, had not territory enough for their 
purposes : “ their coast went out too little for them instead of being 
able to carry their ‘ peculiar institutions’ over all the region where they 
had intended to locate themselves, they had been confined to a nar- 


5 


rower section; more powerful neighbors had preoccupied the soil or 
dislodged them, and they were forced to abandon the idea of regain¬ 
ing it for their own possession. Not wishing to lose their own dis¬ 
tinction and their equality to the other tribes, the children of Dan 
went up to fight against Leshem ; avoiding a war for what was in fact 
their allotted territory, because it was claimed by an exceedingly 
powerful nation, the warlike Philistines, they summoned their forces 
and attacked a more feeble neighbor, occupying territory at the foot of 
Mount Lebanon, near the sources of the Jordan. They were success¬ 
ful in the struggle, and took possession of the region which they 
sought, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and dwelt therein, 
introducing their own customs where they were unknown before; 
and they called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father : it 
lost its former name, and another was given it, a name of honor in¬ 
deed, but at the same time proving its subjection to the conquering 
Danites. 

You will not require me to state the resemblance between this 
portion of Jewish history and the history of our own country for a 
short period past. I need not remind you that in certain sections of 
the country, it was thought “ the coast went out too little for them 
that by reason of a compromise the 1 peculiar institutions’ of the South 
had been debarred admission north and west of the parallel 36° 30', 
so that while the tide of emigration was pouring into the vast wilder¬ 
ness between the Mississippi and the Pacific, and new States con¬ 
stantly applying for admission to the Federal Union, were giving an 
overwhelming preponderance to the political power of the North, the 
South was likely to remain in a stationary position; that for the 
sake of preserving the rank and influence and patronage which they 
had so long maintained, the people of the slaveholding States foment¬ 
ed civil war in the State of Texas, and finally annexed it to the Union; 
that avoiding a conflict with England for a territory to which we 
had long asserted our claim, the government ordered the armies of 
the United States to move upon the soil which was at that moment 
inhabited and cultivated by the citizens of Mexico, and thus plunged 
the nation into a war, for the express purpose of enlarging the area 
of freedom—freedom for men to hold their fellow-men as chattels—a 
war which it would seem has but just commenced—a war which will 
no doubt enable the invaders to possess the land, and to dwell in it, 
and to call it United States, after the name of the country of the con- 


G 


querors, even as Texas is now one of the United States. You all 
understand the history of the past few years, and are able to judge 
of the resemblance between our policy and the course of the Danites, 
as stated in the text. 

It must be evident to every one that this policy, whatever may be 
said of its expediency, is in direct contrast to the elder and more 
worthy policy of our government. History will decide whether it is 
not as deleterious to the welfare of the Union, as the former was aus¬ 
picious and salutary. The era of conquest has commenced. It is an 
era marked with blood. It will be an ensanguined page in our annals 
which shall date the commencement of this period. It is a new 
thing that the citizens of the Republic are called upon to carry the 
banners of their country into a foreign State. It is the first time that 
the proud eagle which has watched our shores from his lofty eyrie 
to swoop the foe that dared invade them with deadly beak and talons, 
has been called to fold his dark wing over the fallen forms of our 
warriors slumbering on stranger soil. 

I. Let us, in the first place, consider the causes of this war. 
War, in any and every form, is dreadful. Yet there may be causes, 
which shall not only render it lawful, but expedient also, for a na¬ 
tion to make the appeal to arms. In reviewing the steps which one 
by one have led to the present difficulties between the two Republics 
of North America, it is evident that many of the reasons which are 
and have been given for the occurrence of these difficulties, are the 
veriest pretexts, and would so be considered by an impartial observer. 
To understand the whole matter, you need to go back to the time 
when our citizens began their emigration to the most eastern of the 
States of Mexico. Great inducements were proffered, both by the 
State and General Governments, for citizens of the United States 
to remove to a region comparatively uninhabited. In process of 
time, so great had been the influx to Texas, by the citizens of the 
South, and by individuals who found it convenient to leave the North, 
that the sympathies of the great majority of the people, instead of 
being with the government to which they owed allegiance, were 
strongly with the United States. An act of the General Government 
of Mexico, which converted the sovereign States into departments 
of that government, was the ground of a revolution, by which Texas 
became an independent Republic. This Republic, although the 
consummation was for some years deferred, was eventually annexed 


7 


to the United States. Mexico, having from the first claimed that 
Texas was a revolted province, and having been at war with her, 
more or less, during the nine years of her declarative independence, 
menaced a renewal of the war with the United States, for the con¬ 
quest of that province. With the advance of our army to the Rio 
Grande, the war actually commenced. It has been carried into the 
enemy’s territory. His strong citadels, and many of his seaport 
towns, have been taken. Over a large extent of soil, the United 
States hold nominal jurisdiction. And the intention of the govern¬ 
ment is to obtain satisfaction for the former claims of our citizens 
against Mexico, and for the expenses of the present war, by a seiz¬ 
ure of territory sufficiently ample to cover them both. Such, in 
brief, are the steps which have led to that position which we now 
sustain. The course of the government in regard to Texas, is the 
first thing to be particularly noticed ; the designs of the government 
in regard to the termination of the war, is the second thing to be 
carefully observed. It is idle to talk of national honor, in the outset, 
demanding the appeal to arms. What is called national honor, may 
not perhaps now allow this nation to recede from its present posi¬ 
tion. But before any decisive measures were taken by force, there 
was higher honor in treating so weak a neighbor with long-suffering 
and great forbearance, than in showing her our superior power, es¬ 
pecially when we had just yielded our claims so readily in a dispute 
with the mistress of the seas. And even now it is questionable 
whether higher honor would not be exhibited in efforts to secure 
peace, even if attended with some sacrifice, than in efforts to pro¬ 
long the conflict. It is idle to talk of our claims upon Mexico. 
They amounted to $2,026,399.68. They were acknowledged. And 
even if they had never been liquidated, would the loss have atoned 
even for the loss of life in a single battle ? There are other means 
for securing the payment of such claims than war. But these things 
were not the cause of the present war. Except for the matter of 
Texas, except for the desire of more territory, we are safe in saying 
peace would have been preserved. The coast of the South “ went 
out too little for them.” By the Missouri compromise, the domain 
of slavery had been confined within certain limits, and the ‘ area of 
freedom’ had been preserved pure from contamination with that 
cursed system. The power which had so long been wielded by the 
South, which had appropriated to the aggrandizement of a peculiar 


8 


portion of the Union the high places of honor and trust, seemed 
likely to pass away. The hardy pioneers of the North were press¬ 
ing over the vast wilderness of the West; the forest was falling be¬ 
fore them; towns and cities were springing up as if by magic behind 
them, and all the marks of a high and advanced civilization were 
witnessed as the fruits of their enterprise and labor; while sovereign 
States were, one after another, formed from these materials, which 
took their position side by side with their sister sovereignties, which 
were free from the foul blot of slavery, and which would give the 
weight of their rapidly augmenting influence in favor of freedom, 
and the rights of the non-slaveholding portion of the Union. Here 
we can learn the cause of the war. There was need of territory to 
balance the territory of the North. There was need of a domain of 
slavery to balance the domain of freedom. To these things I trace 
the present unfortunate struggle. I accuse the members of no polit¬ 
ical party. I blame no man’s political preferences. But it is time, 
high time, that we of the North, of every party and every persua¬ 
sion, understand the position which we now sustain—the position 
which the country sustains. We are accountable for it at the bar of 
our own consciences; we are at the bar of the public opinion of the 
civilized world. We shall be held accountable for it at the bar of 
the God and Judge of nations. 

In every step which has conducted to this war, I see the impress 
of that system, the most accursed that the sun looks down upon,— 
that system which blasts the region where it exists, as though some 
moral miasma was tainting the atmosphere with the breath of ruin, 
and which spreads its desolating influence far and wide over the 
land scourged with its existence. 

The claims of slavery are the cause of the Mexican war. The 
proof is before us. When the citizens of the United States com¬ 
menced their emigration to Texas, they found the half-civilized in¬ 
habitants of that country, in one respect, far in advance of the more 
enlightened people of this Union. They left behind them heathen 
and human slaves; they came to a land untrodden by a slave. It 
was a land, large and good, wherein the people dwelt quiet and se¬ 
cure, even as the five spies of Dan found the land which they after¬ 
wards seized and possessed. It had a soil rich and well adapted to 
the productions of the South. It promised to open a wide and 
profitable market to the breeders of human stock. The determine- 


9 


tion was formed that Texas should become independent of Mexico. 
The Southern press, years before the revolt, declared that the people 
of that State would throw off their allegiance to Mexico, so soon as 
they should have a reasonable pretext. The capital of the South 
was invested in Texan lands. A system of operations was com¬ 
menced which resulted, as it was designed to result, in the separa¬ 
tion of Texas from Mexico, and the introduction of American slaves 
to its rich plantations. 

Take the next step which conducted to the present war,—the an¬ 
nexation of that State to the American Union. Why was the annex¬ 
ation consummated? I will not detain you here. You have heard 
the reason stated on the floor of the Senate, during the last session 
of Congress, by him who was at the time of the annexation the 
Secretary of State. No one can impeach his testimony. He as¬ 
sures us that it was an event to whose accomplishment he devoted 
his energies, and in behalf of which he yielded other matters of im¬ 
portance. And he furthermore assures us, that the great motive 
which led and urged him to its consummation, was the belief that 
Great Britain was about to interfere for the abolition of slavery, in 
what was, at that time, the Republic of Texas. It was that slavery 
might be perpetuated there, that Texas was annexed to the United 
States. I know that it was not so regarded by many who were in¬ 
strumental in securing that result. I know that the message of tho 
President of the United States, recommending the adoption of the 
terms of annexation, does not allude to this motive. He says, “ The 
extension of our coastwise and foreign trade, to an amount almost 
incalculable—the enlargement of the market for our manufactures— 
a constantly growing market for our agricultural productions—safety 
to our frontiers, and additional strength and stability to the Union— 
these are the results which would rapidly develop themselves, upon 
the consummation of the measure of annexation.” And yet, John 
Tyler knew, what Mr. Calhoun has since confessed, that paramount 
to all these reasons—immensely paramount to all these reasons—was 
the overshadowing reason, that thereby the system of slavery could 
be benefited, and its continuance and its power be perpetuated. 

Again, look at the proximate steps which led to actual war. They 
were taken at the beck of slavery, that there might be a pretext for 
wresting from Mexico some of her fairest provinces, to become the 
heritage of human bondage. There was need of territory for the 
growth and expansion of that system, to balance the territory of 

2 


10 


freedom. A few facts only will now be adduced. During the last 
session of Congress, a resolution was introduced into the lower 
chamber, by a member from South Carolina, to the effect that all 
territory hereafter acquired, north of the line of the Missouri com¬ 
promise, should he free, and that all south of that line might be formed 
into slave States. Every member from the South voted for the adop¬ 
tion of the resolution. The fact speaks for itself. You know how the 
famous Wilmot Proviso, the design of which was to exclude slavery 
from the territory which maybe gained by conquest or by treaty, has 
met with the strong and bitter opposition and denunciation of the en¬ 
tire slaveholding portion of the Union, not only in the Capitol, but 
throughout the entire South. The great champion of slavery, in his 
place in the Senate, has opposed this proviso with the force and elo¬ 
quence which characterize him, and has declared that its passage 
would lead inevitably to a dissolution of the Union. The Southern 
press has asserted that its adoption would prevent the South from 
taking any further part in the war—thus confessing that the sole ob¬ 
ject for which they fight is to widen the area of slavery; while the 
General Assembly of Virginia has unanimously resolved, that any 
enactment of the Federal Government, which has for its object the 
prohibition of slavery in any territory to be acquired either by con¬ 
quest or treaty, will not be recognized as binding, and an imposing 
convention at Charleston has reiterated and adopted the resolution. 
These things need no comment. They prove that the pretexts put 
forth by the leaders in this existing war, and upon the strength of 
which the North has hitherto acted, are the grossest sophistry, and 
are only worthy of supreme and lasting execration from every lover 
of human freedom. It is a subject before which, at the South, the 
barriers of party fall as though they were weakness itself. It is a 
subject which we of the North should also regard, untrammeled and 
unprejudiced by party principles and party predilections. Can we 
not rally with a moral courage as unswerving and fearless for the 
cause of liberty, as their devotion is entire and uncompromising for 
the wrongs of oppression ? Shall it be said, that while the upholders 
of slavery were united as one man to widen its domain and extend 
its influence, the champions of freedom were found unfaithful and 
pusillanimous in the time of trial ? At this period of the world’s his¬ 
tory, when the bands of servitude are dropping from the toil-worn 
and groaning vassals of tyranny, when the sternest autocrat is some¬ 
what relaxing his iron rule, and from all the plains once cultivated 


11 


in terror and in tears, there is going up the shout of redemption, 
shall we who inhabit this soil, baptized with the blood of freedom’s 
martyrs, hallowed as the resting-place of those who, with arms of 
strength, and the devotion of apostles, stood around the war-rocked 
cradle of liberty in the days of her infancy—shall we who look back 
with reference to our Puritan ancestry, illustrious for all their won¬ 
derful sacrifices and toils in behalf of the heritage which is our de¬ 
light and glory—shall we be the patrons and upholders of a conflict, 
designed to widen the limits of human bondage, and to continue to 
curse our country with the woes and wrongs of slavery ? O, if it 
was a war for our altars and our fires—if it was to turn back th e 
insulting footsteps of some proud invader from the shores which he 
was dishonoring with his presence—if it was to maintain the sacred 
principles which our fathers struggled and died to establish—I know 
that there would be a rousing of human energies such as the world 
has never witnessed,—I know that the thunders of an indignant re¬ 
monstrance would resound from every valley, and roll down from 
every mountain of our Alpine New England, and the voice of a lofty 
eloquence would ring through the vaulted halls of deliberative wis¬ 
dom, and the great ones and the mighty would unite their strength, 
and our entire population would be in arms; and from every town 
and hamlet they would issue forth in the might of manhood, and the 
vigor of youth, to prove their patriotism, and defend their inheritance! 
But we are unjust and ungenerous to ourselves and to others, when 
we in any mode countenance and sustain a war which is in direct 
antagonism to the genius of our constitution, and in defiance of an 
outraged public opinion. 

II. Let us consider, in the second place, the consequences of 
this war. Here I was intending to enlarge ; but my limits will only 
allow me to hint at some things which are worthy of extended 
thought. We cannot suppose that the new course of policy which 
has now been adopted will be transient in its results. The mind of 
the nation will be directed in new channels ; and, as it is difficult to 
arrest the strong tides of a river which has once been diverted from 
its course, and has burst through the banks and barriers which con¬ 
fined it, so will it be difficult to compass and control the new im¬ 
pulses which will be imparted to our people. If once our power is 
firmly planted within the confines of Mexico, who can tell where 
the range of our ambition and cupidity shall end ? If once we ear¬ 
nestly enter on the career of conquest, what boundaries shall de« 


12 


fine our progress ? Why shall not our armies go forth, like the all- 
conquering legions of Rome, to subdue a world ? Why shall not 
some daring Napoleon mount the blood-red car of war, and drive it 
over the wasted wrecks of empire ? Then may our troops revel in 
“ the halls of the Montezumas,” and the last vestige of Mexican 
independence pass away like a dream. And that car of victory 
may not pause until a mighty continent shall acknowledge the su¬ 
premacy of the great Republic of the North. The last symbol of 
European dominion may be obliterated from the map of the hemis¬ 
phere. The colonies of England and of Russia may be subdued 
before the might of our invincible arms ; and the tottering dynasties 
of the South, whose only rule is misrule, may become component 
parts of this gigantic empire. May God avert that day ! There is 
no passion more to be dreaded among us than the lust of conquest— 
the desire of dominion. Our boundaries are already wide enough 
for our safety and our permanence : if they should be greatly en¬ 
laced, our nationality would totter to its fall. But one consequence 
of a war like this is to cherish the passion for dominion. 

There are some things which are the necessary consequences of 
a war like the one in which we are now engaged. It will deprive 
the nation of many of its noblest sons. Amid the chances of battle, 
the bravest and the most worthy have no insurance of safety. Al¬ 
ready we have witnessed the congregated thousands in our commer¬ 
cial cities assembled to pay the last honors to the remains of those 
who fell in the fierce-fought battles which have now transpired. 
The muffled drum, the trumpet blast, the quick report of the minute- 
gun, have heralded their consignment to the tomb. They were in 
the vigor of manhood when they fell: they have finished prema¬ 
turely their mission in the world. And think you not this war will 
result in sorrow untold in the scattered homes of our country ? We 
read the results of the successful contests with enthusiasm, and re¬ 
joice in the valor and superiority of our troops. How different 
would be our feelings if the hundreds or thousands who are slain 
were from families which we have known—if they were our brothers 
and friends, as they are the brothers and friends of others ! There 
is necessarily a waste of treasure—treasure enough to have lined 
our extensive coast with break-waters and light-houses, which would 
have remained for ages the monuments of our wisdom and the guar¬ 
dians of our mariners. There is necessarily the immorality, the 
corruption, the morbid excitement, the vice of the camp, and an in- 


13 


fluence for evil on society at large, which are the universal accom¬ 
paniments of war. There is necessarily an attention of the people 
to this exciting topic. Their thoughts are called away, in some 
measure, from the pursuits of peace : the claims of the Prince of 
Peace are not apt to be regarded in the midst of war. Those who 
do not fall in the struggle, bring back to their homes and their em¬ 
ployments the habits which have been acquired in a school unfavor¬ 
able to a rigid morality. Instead of cultivating the friendship and 
good-will of a neighbor, which in the midst of great obstacles has 
endeavored to imitate our example, we are by this war exasperating 
the feelings of a passionate, and inflexible, and vindictive people,— 
causing those who might have been our allies upon this continent in 
promoting the principles of republican liberty and resisting the en¬ 
croachments of monarchical aggression, to become a wily and re¬ 
vengeful and permanent border-foe. 

These things are the necessary consequences of the war—conse¬ 
quences fearful enough to make us shrink back from its prosecution, 
to stay this work of ruin, even in mid course, although it may be at¬ 
tended with a sacrifice of what is falsely called national honor. 
But there are possible consequences still more dreadful, and from 
whose actual existence we turn away appalled and saddened. 

“ And in that work of death what ills may come,— 

There’s the respect that makes calamity of war.” 

The present war with Mexico, caused as it has been by the demands 
of slavery, has aroused a spirit which will not be quelled by a feeble 
power. Perhaps no period in the annals of the past has been at¬ 
tended with such omens of evil for the stability of our government, 
and the harmony of those clashing interests which divide the North 
and the South, as this whose scroll is now unrolling before the world. 
On the one hand, we see the steady purpose to resist the further en¬ 
croachments of human slavery on the soil which is now uncon¬ 
taminated by its presence. On the other hand, we see the firm de¬ 
termination to extend the system of negro servitude over the terri¬ 
tory which may be acquired by conquest or by treaty. Never was 
the cool spirit of the North more thoroughly aroused: never were 
the warm passions of the South more universally excited. It needs 
only some occasion suitable for their development, to manifest the 
proof of their power and the energy of their action. Here, where 
slavery is viewed with all its blighting and destructive effects, pa- 



14 


ralyzing the energies of the state, corrupting the virtues of the 
citizens, and spreading far and near its withering and desolating in¬ 
fluence of moral and political death—here, there is the deep convic¬ 
tion that it should be confined within its present limits—that its ter¬ 
rible power for evil should be restrained, and that, if those who now 
suffer from its effects in every relation of life, still cherish it as an 
inalienable boon, it shall not be allowed to curse others also. There, 
where it is viewed as a choice legacy, and loved as a darling insti¬ 
tution, there is the strong resolve that it shall be extended as our 
country extends, that it shall be recognized in the new domain to be 
controlled by our laws. The North has already taken its position. 
It is a position from which it cannot recede. The South has also 
taken its stand—and to that stand it will adhere. Acquire new ter¬ 
ritory, and who shall fathom the dark future before us ? Shall that 
territory become, not what it is now, the arena of conflict for war¬ 
ring nations, but the battle-field of brothers—the plain where the 
North and the South shall meet in the deadly struggle? Ah ! from 
that day may God in his mercy preserve my country ! But the de¬ 
claration has already gone forth, that the South will proceed to the 
last alternative for the maintainance of its position, that slavery 
shall be introduced into all or a part of the acquired territory. And 
the North has pledged itself to preserve that same territory free 
from the unhallowed curse of negro bondage. If territory shall be 
acquired, what remains but fratricidal conflict ? The possibility of 
such an issue gives to this war a supremely dreadful character. If 
there is a curse more fearful than any other which can fall upon this 
land, it is civil war. And he who breaks down the bulwarks of our 
union—who lights up the glaring torch of internal commotion—is 
the prime minister of woe ! Ah ! it would be a conflict sadder than 
any which the world, in the long history of her bloody and fearful 
conflicts, has ever witnessed! It would dash the fairest hopes of 
man. It would wreck this last and noblest experiment of free and 
equal government. And a wail would go up from the dungeons of 
those despotic lands where the wretched have been cheered by 
visions of hope from these bright shores beyond the rolling ocean. 
And tyranny would stalk forth more fearless on its hideous mission, 
and grasp its iron mace with a hand that had ceased to tremble. If 
such are the possible consequences of this war, does it not become 
our government to pause in its plans ?—does it not become each 
citizen to oppose his individual influence to its perpetuation ? Do not 


15 


the highest motives which can be urged for its prosecution sink be¬ 
fore them into comparative insignificance, nay, into very nothingness? 

We have thus considered the causes and consequences of this war 
which is now in progress. It is in progress. Already thousands have 
fallen on the plains of Mexico, as the mournful monuments of its exist¬ 
ence. They shall never come back to the homes that they left in joy 
and hope. Hardly have we all heard the news of the last successful 
struggle, in which seven hundred of our soldiers fell, and sixty- 
three of our officers were killed and wounded. And who can in¬ 
form us what is yet to transpire ? We seem to be only at the be¬ 
ginning of the end. 

Too long, indeed, has the North succumbed to the haughty and 
overbearing spirit of the South. They, who have lorded it over 
their human chattels, have also lorded it over the obsequious repre¬ 
sentatives of Northern freemen. The South has grasped the posi¬ 
tions of honor and wealth and power in our government. She has 
held five-sixths of all the high offices of honor and trust. The tal¬ 
ent of the North has remained in comparative obscurity, while 
Southern men of inferior abilities have wielded the influence and 
patronage of the government. 

The South has been indulged until she has become as willful 
and perverse as a pampered and petted child. For her the Florida 
and Louisiana purchases were made. For her a long and bloody 
war was maintained among the swamps of Florida. And when the 
North has hesitated to yield to all her imperious demands, she has 
threatened a dissolution of the Union. For the acquisition of slave- 
territory we are now engaged in a wicked war, whose issues are in 
the unknown future. The period for forbearance and truckling 
slavishness has passed. We are to remember our birth-right. We 
owe a debt of justice to ourselves. We owe a debt of obedience to 
God. This war—I hesitate not to say it—is in resistance of His 
commands. We are forgetful who is on the throne. It is a Being 
who is fearfully just. He watches the nations—and the whole his¬ 
tory of the past assures us that He metes out to them a terrible re¬ 
compense for their crimes. The blasted ruins of States illustrious 
in the records of former ages, stand as stern monuments along the 
track of time, mournfully and faithfully reminding us of our duty or 
our doom. Let us heed in season the voice that comes up from the 
sepulchres of departed greatness. 

The same great Being now rules the nations of men, who in for- 


16 


mer times has overturned the thrones and wrecked the dominion of 
the proudest empires. I look back along the course of empire, and 
everywhere I see the testimonials of the solemn truth, that God is 
in history. Mightier monarchies than any that now exist, have sent 
forth their all-conquering legions over the plains of earth, and their 
name and power have been known among all nations; but at 
His fiat they have passed away like the mists of the morning. 
Dragons and satyrs dance in their habitations, and the dwellings 
which were once thronged with a rejoicing people, are full of dole¬ 
ful creatures. And so it may be with those who are now exulting 
in the pride and greatness of their dominion. Another Attila may 
be the scourge of God. Another Napoleon may lead his triumphant 
armies into the noblest capitals of the earth, and wave his eagle- 
banners over the monuments of kingly glory, and crush their de¬ 
molished thrones beneath the iron heel of his myriad warriors. 
And what will it avail to us, my countrymen, if with the triumph of 
our arms we expose ourselves to the wrath and frown of Jehovah ? 
WhaWthough the almost impregnable fortresses of a sister Republic 
yield to the matchless energies of our troops, and from the Gulf to 
the Pacific a vast domain acknowledges allegiance to our sove¬ 
reignty, and our institutions are extended over a foreign soil by the 
force of arms, if with it all we draw down the wrath of an offended 
God? There may be a display of patriotism and of valor—but it 
would be better for us to manifest the proofs of piety and philan¬ 
thropy. Already the retiring Indian, the sole survivor of a noble 
race, as he moves sadly away from the sepulchres of his fathers,— 
already the wretched African, on the soil moistened with his tears 
and blood,—seem to invoke the justice of Heaven upon our land. 
Let us not cause another people to curse our name and cry for the 
vengeance of the Most High to visit us. We have too great a work 
before us to exhaust our energies on that which is sure to bring us 
no benefit, and may bring us irretrievable ruin. 

On this day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer, let us look 
to the God of our fathers, that He would deliver us from the heavy 
judgments we deserve : let us humble ourselves before Him for our 
private and public sins : let us implore the vouchsafement of His 
continued favors, that He would lead our nation to terminate the ex¬ 
isting war, that the sound of battle and the sight of garments rolled 
in blood may cease, and that we may live at peace with all the na¬ 
tions of the earth, and be that happy people whose God is Jehovah. 

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